


Pretty Boy

by Classical_Trash



Series: Reno has an unlikely friend [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Make-up time, Pre-Canon, Simple family fluff sutff, and women, before Reno is a turk, no beta we die like men, rare friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24085315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Classical_Trash/pseuds/Classical_Trash
Summary: Madam M has a rare night off, and spends that time giving Reno a make-over.
Series: Reno has an unlikely friend [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774066
Kudos: 28





	Pretty Boy

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to delve into my little headcanon that Reno grew up mostly in Wall Market, and liked the idea of him having an almost mother-son relationship with Madam M.

“Don’t move your head, boy.” 

Madam M sneers while keeping the teenager’s face in place. 

There’s a pout to the recently painted red lips, and she quickly slaps the boy’s neck, earning a hiss from him. 

“You agreed to let me practice on you, so you better be a good little model,” she scolds, setting down her lip brush onto the light wooden and brown vanity. She picks up the sleek and long, almost painterly, brush that already had black eye-liner on its bristles. 

The boy makes a noise to vocalize his annoyance. 

“Reno, I swear if you make one more stupid noise I’ll lodge this into your eye socket.” 

“I’m just bored, yo,” he mumbles, closing his eyes when Madam M hovers the brush over his left eye. “Does it really take this long for girls to do their make-up?” 

“No, not really,” she whispers, trying to get a clean stroke around Reno’s eye. “We’re usually not whiney about the process like you.” Reno frowns, making the woman smirk in triumph. “Keep your face relaxed.” He slouches into the chair he sits in, earning a light smack to his neck again. 

A deafening silence is bestowed upon them as Reno could feel the utter focus the woman had. He can already imagine her face: her thin eyebrows slightly scrunched, and lips pursed. A moment of true emotion from his care-taker who continuously smiles for the customers at her massage parlor. 

They were in the attic of her parlor. Where she lets Reno stay ever since he ran into her parlor when he was seven. It was warm, and the fairy-lights she had put for decoration was cutesy. The vanity was here way before Reno, and Madam M had always told Reno to not dare step close to it. So the moment she offered to let him see what was in the vanity, he took the opportunity immediately. 

“There’s lipstick on my teeth,” he says when Madam M moves her attention to his right eye. 

He can feel the glare in her eyes. 

“We’re almost done, so try to keep the complaining at a minimum. And once we’re done, I’ll let you clean your teeth.” 

“There’s powder in my nose and it’s getting annoying, yo.”

“You’re annoying me and yet you’re still here. Shut it, Reno.” He hears her grind her teeth with those last words, and he decides to shut up. 

Madam M feels a wave of relaxation once she realizes that Reno won’t complain anymore, and she settles the eye-liner brush back down and finds her bottle of mascara. 

Even if Reno’s eyelashes were already long and curved, it couldn’t be bad to bold them up a tad bit more. 

Minutes pass, and Madam M is surprised that Reno can keep his eyes closed for so long.

Finally, she closes up the black tube of mascara and puts it on the vanity, and gets up from her chair, taking a step back. 

“Go ahead, boy.” 

Reno flutters his eyes open. Delicately, he touches his cheek to feel the blush and concealer on his smooth skin. 

He looks to Madam M, a slight glint of pride in her eyes. 

“I knew that you would clean up nicely,” she smiles. She tilts her head to the vanity’s mirror, and Reno immediately looks to the left of him, turning his whole body towards the vanity.

Pale skin turned paler, and a light pink on the sides of his face that made him look soft. The currant red of the lipstick made his lips seem plumper than what they actually were. 

What took the longest is what he adored the most. 

His eyes, what he considered his best asset, were glowing and more pronounced. The deep shade of purple eye shadow looked so beautiful when contrasting his blue-green eyes, and he couldn’t help the slight warmth growing in his chest. 

“Do you like it, Reno?” Madam finally asks, and he looks up to the standing woman. 

She has her hair down, her face clean of any make-up and a black yukata. Reno almost forgot that tonight was one of the few nights she took to relax from the customers of Wall Market. She looks a bit tired for someone as young as her, but he doesn’t dare speak that. 

Reno mumbles something. 

“Speak up, boy!” She barks. 

“I like it!” he yells back, and Madam M grins. “It’s nice.” 

She steps closer to Reno again and sits back in her chair. Opening one of the drawers of the vanity and pulling out a comb, two hair ties, a spray bottle, and a few slim, gold sticks with two ends that looked like the things she puts in her hair. 

“Will you let me do your hair without your stupid complaints?” 

“If you can doll me up, even more, go right ahead, yo!” He grins. “Work your magic!”

He hears a chuckle come from the woman, and she makes him turn the chair so that the back of his head faced her. 

“You don’t have enough hair for me to do my usual hairstyle, but I can try something else…” she mutters to herself, picking up the comb and brushing the dyed, red hair. 

“Whatcha thinking of?”

“You’ll see. Now don’t speak.” 

And fifteen minutes of hair-pulling and minimum complaints from the teenager, Madam M was finished. 

“Look in the mirror.” She says, letting Reno turn his body to the vanity once more. 

His hair was still somewhat down, but only in the back, where it reached the ends of his shoulder blades. Whatever spray she used smoothed out the wildness of his hair, letting it fall gently in the loose half ponytail she did. The strands that usually were in his face were put back and he could see his face clearly. 

There were two of those gold sticks where the half pony-tail was tied, one horizontal, the other vertical. He finally noticed the flower design at the end of the sticks that felt like feathers in his hair. 

“What are these called?” Reno asks, lightly tapping on one of the golden sticks.

“Kanzashi’s,” Madam M says, looking into the mirror as well. Solemn, she says, “The ones you’re wearing are family heirlooms.” 

“Shit, really?!” Reno slightly jumps, looking into the brown eyes of the woman. “I don’t think you should really let me wear these-”

“I was joking, boy! I thought you would have realized that.” Madam scolds, but the little smile on her lips betray her anger. 

“They’re really nice.” 

“Mhmm, I only own the best.” 

Reno laughs, looking back to the mirror. 

“I look  _ really good, yo. _ ”

“What a vain comment,” she remarks, “But it is my work so I’ll let it slide.” Madam M grabs the comb that she had put down earlier, brushing out her hair that was only a few centimeters longer than Reno’s. 

“You think,” Reno pauses, grabbing Madam M’s attention from her own hair. “You think you could teach me?” 

A little shocked, but she doesn’t voice that. “Planning on doing make-up more often, hm?” She raises an eyebrow. 

“Well, I gotta look my best sometimes, and even if I am pretty fucking hot without make-up-”   
“Don’t flatter yourself anymore, boy. You sound stupid.” Madam M puts up her index finger to shut him up. “Do you want to learn tonight? Or the next time I plan to have some time off?” 

“When  _ do you  _ next have time off?” 

“A month from now.” 

Reno wants to bite his lip, but he remembers the lipstick on his lips and decides not to ruin it. 

“Is tonight okay?” he asks a bit meekly, and it makes Madam M wonder if that’s an honest expression or a way to soften her. 

“I would have not offered it if it wasn’t,” she hums. There’s a bright expression on the teen’s face and it makes her feel a bit happy. “I hope you’re prepared to do my make-up, boy. I’m not too keen on letting you mess up my face. So listen to me clearly. If you poke out my eye in any way, I’ll do the same to you. Got that?” 

“Crystal clear, Madam,” he smiles, and she grabs the cream-colored make-up sponge and hands it to Reno. 

“Do you remember what I did to you?”

“I kinda do, yes.” 

“Explain to me what that sponge is for, and I’ll let you start doing my make-up.” 

The bright and animated explanation Reno tells Madam M makes her smile, and once she gives him permission to put the foundation on her face, there’s a smile so genuine on the red-heads face, that it makes him look like a young child. 

An hour of explaining, instructing, and a few close calls where Reno almost poked Madam M in the eye, he’s finished. 

She looks into the mirror. 

A bit sloppy on the eyes, but hardly noticeable to anyone but Madam M and her high standards. Her lips looked a bit uneven in a way and he added a bit too much foundation. 

She glances over to Reno, who wasn’t looking in the mirror, but to the floor. 

“You did good for your first time, Reno.” 

He looks up, eyes wide, and a smile slowly growing on his face. 

“Well, thanks, Madam! If it weren’t for you though I wouldn’t have done nearly as good…” He starts to ramble slightly, but she doesn’t mind. 

“I’ll let you use anything in this vanity to practice your skills. I expect to see improvement next month from now, boy.” She lays her words sternly. 

“Yes, ma’am!” Reno grins, and his eyes soften. “Uh, thanks, yo.”

She leans over to the boy and hugs him. The two let go, and she reaches into the vanity to retrieve make-up wipes. She grabs one and wipes off the make-up on her face. 

“When you want to, take a wipe or two and clean off your face. And clean your teeth.” Madam M sets the used wipe on the vanity. “Put these all away too,” she stands up and walks to where the ladder that leads down to the massage parlor is. “Good night, Reno.” 

“Night, Madam!” He says, already putting all the products away. 

She climbs down the ladder, already anticipating her next night off. 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!  
> Thanks for reading :))


End file.
